MEMOIR OF W, C. KNIGHT 545 



character, balanced by a fine physique and a clear mind, he was pre- 

 eminently the man for the place he held in the state of AVyoming. 

 Though an indefatigable worker and leading a strenuously active life 

 from boyhood, he never became so engrossed in his own affairs as to 

 wholly forget his public and social obligations. To a large degree he 

 was a self-made man, yet without a tinge of arrogance or self conceit. 

 He was born December 13, 1858, at Rochelle, Illinois, from which place 

 his parents, Mr and Mrs David A. Knight, moved to a farm at Blue 

 Springs, Nebraska, some 30 miles south of Lincoln, where they still live. 



Thus his boyhood da} 7 s savored of the arduous struggle of frontier 

 life on a farm, which may have been none the worse for him, since his 

 fearlessness, physique, fixity of purpose, and scientific bent may have 

 been engendered by it. His scientific tastes and tendencies were made 

 known to his parents by the nature of his pastime and by his choice of 

 reading matter, and to his instructors in the University of Nebraska by 

 his chosen courses of study. Though an excellent botanical student 

 and particularly devoted to chemistry and assaying, his special aptitude 

 was for geology and mineralogy. While still an undergraduate student 

 young Knight, duringthe protracted absences of his instructors in geology, 

 voluntarily organized classes, prescribed courses of readings, and planned 

 and carried out laboratory work and field excursions, thus early evinc- 

 ing his ability to plan and execute, which later in life made him so 

 invaluable to the state of Wyoming. Though an ardent student, full of 

 college spirit, and a scholar of excellent standing, he did not neglect 

 those obligations which lie outside of the curriculum and go so far 

 toward making men versatile, broad, and liberal. 



As an undergraduate student he took an active part in the literary, 

 debating, and social societies. Being musically inclined, he organized 

 the University band, in which he played. This organization flourished 

 and still survives him as the present Cadet band, numbering some fifty 

 pieces, now under military discipline and under the directorship of a 

 competent bandmaster. Though subordinated to other work, his music 

 was never wholly abandoned. 



In 1886 he was graduated from the University of Nebraska with the 

 degree of Bachelor of Science. The same year he was appointed assistant 

 territorial geologist of Wyoming. Surrounded as he was in a frontier 

 mining region by many unscrupulous men and by fraudulent practices, 

 a test was made of the man in the outset, and his character proved to 

 be inflexible, as every mining camp in the state of Wyoming and beyond 

 will attest. Some of his encounters for honesty and uprightness during 

 his early experiences were of a fairly tragic order, but he avoided even 

 the appearance of irregularity. 



